"Truly fine guns are as much works of art as poems, novels, or paintings," writes acclaimed outdoor writer Michael McIntosh in this classic book. And who better to guide us through the world of fine guns than McIntosh. Here, he captured the whole gun--the gun as a combination of form, fit, and function. Divided into two sections, the first on the art of guns and gunmaking, and the last on the art of shooting, this book is, as McIntosh himself says, "a celebration of the gun." Indeed, it's a celebration no lover of fine double guns should miss.

The stories in this anthology demonstrate why the pheasant has become America's favorite game bird. Some of the finest writers in the field take their best shots at the Ringneck, covering guns, dogs, lore, history, conservation, and even some tried and true methods for preparing your pheasant for consumption.

After Minnesota lawyer Ted Nelson Lundrigan wowed the sporting community with his now classic Hunting the Sun, wingshooting readers eagerly awaited his second book, Grouse and Lesser Gods. Part hunting credo, part philosophy of life, this book will let you traipse with Ted into his coverts with his beloved dogs in pursuit of the always elusive roughed grouse. Along the way, he shares his experiences hunting, his love of his dogs, and more personal insights into raising children and his appreciation of the natural world--proving that bird hunters are often quite thoughtful and introspective.

The pro-hunting/anti-hunting controversy is a national issue that reaches from California to New York to Florida. Hunters defend their activity while anti-hunters vehemently condemn it. This book presents arguments from both groups and will help to broaden the perspective of each side. This book will be useful to students and scholars of environmental ethics. Contents: The Case for Hunting; The Case Against Hunting; Leopold's Ethics of Hunting; Political and Religious Factors of Hunting; Responsibility, Challenge and the Future.

August 1781 saw the publication of a manual on fox hunting that would become a classic of its genre. Hugely popular in its own day, Peter Beckford's Thoughts on Hunting is often cited as marking the birth of modern hunting and continues to be quoted from affectionately today by the hunting fraternity. Less stressed is the fact that its subject was immediately controversial, and that a hostile review which appeared on the heels of the manual's publication raised two criticisms of fox hunting that would be repeated over the next two centuries: fox hunting was a cruel sport and a feudal, anachronistic one at that. This study explores the attacks made on fox hunting from 1781 to the legal ban achieved in 2004, as well as assessing the reasons for its continued appeal and post-ban survival. Chapters cover debates in the areas of: class and hunting; concerns over cruelty and animal welfare; party politics; the hunt in literature; and nostalgia. By adopting a thematic approach, the author is able to draw out the wider social and cultural implications of the debates, and to explore what they tell us about national identity, social mores and social relations in modern Britain.

Joel Barber spent 20 years studying and collecting wild fowl decoys from Nova Scotia to North Carolina. Mr. Barber's authoratative volume is the only text written for the true collector and contains all there is to be known on the subject: how to recognize the locality from which a decoy comes, the world of famous decoy makers, the scarcity of certain types of decoys and more.

In medieval Europe, falconry was perhaps the most popular form of hunting among the aristocracy. Owning a falcon, and the necessary falconer to go with it, was a status symbol throughout the middle ages. This book is the first broad history of English royal falconry in medieval times, a book that draws on forty years of research to provide a full description of the actual practice and conditions of the sport and of the role of falconers in the English royal household.

Robin S. Oggins begins with a description of the birds of prey, their training, and the sport of falconry. He provides a short history of early falconry in western Europe and England, then explores in unprecedented detail royal falconry from the reign of William I to the death of Edward I in 1307. The author concludes with an overview of the place and importance of falconry in medieval life.

Revised and updated! With more than forty years of experience butchering domestic animals, game, and birds, award-winning outdoor writer and photographer Monte Burch presents this complete guide for butchering many types of livestock or wild animals. Learn how to butcher cows, chickens, goats, hogs, deer, turkeys, rabbits, and more, with simple and easy-to-follow, step-by-step photographs and illustrations. Burch also provides recommendations on which tools (knives, paring knives, meat scissors, meat grinders, shrink-wrappers) to use for the task at hand. He lists detailed instructions on how to butcher each animal and use each part, so nothing goes to waste. Now you'll be able to prepare meat for salting and curing, freezing, sausage making, and more. From field dressing, skinning, and boning out a whole deer to efficiently plucking ducks and bleeding out hogs, The Ultimate Guide to Home Butchering is the one-stop guide to help you become more self-sufficient in preparing your meat for your table.

Richard Jefferies is famous for his tales of country life. The Gamekeeper At Home is probably his best known work, truly reflecting those by-gone days when the Gamekeeper was a vital part of rural activities. He discusses the man himself and how he fits into the community and examines his relations with his family. His area of activity is covered - the fields, the woods, the meadows and the ponds and streams. The world around him needs protection from the predators that kill the game and disturb the balance of nature. There is contact with his dogs and other animals such as rabbits and deer as well as the traditional enemies such as the fox. All parts are brought together so the reader can sense the activity of the countryside and the efforts to keep its integral parts operating in harmony. This understanding is enhanced by the masterly drawings by Charles Whymper. List of Chapters: I. THE MAN HIMSELF - HIS HOUSE, AND TOOLS II. HIS FAMILY AND CASTE III. IN THE FIELDS IV. HIS DOMINIONS: - THE WOODS - MEADOWS - AND WATER V. SOME OF HIS SUBJECTS: DOGS, RABBITS, MICE AND SUCH SMALL DEER VI. HIS ENEMIES BIRDS AND BEAASTS OF PREY - TRESPASSERS VII. PROFESSIONAL POACHERS - THE ART OF WIRING GAME VIII. THE FIELD DETECTIVE - FISH POACHING IX. GUERILLA WARFARE - GUN ACCIDENTS - BLACK SHEEP

How to Take Monster Bucks will reveal the secret strategies of men who consistently bag older age-class deer each season. There is a price to pay to be the best at any sport, and trophy deer hunting is no different. But this book will save you thousands of hunting hours in your pursuit of monster bucks. Special Features *Cackle to monster bucks *Double-call trophy deer *Find big bucks in cattle country *Take the smartest bucks on the land you hunt *Hunt late-season trophies *Find wall-hanging bucks on your kitchen table For more than three decades, John E. Phillips has hunted white-tailed deer across the nation. He has gathered information for his newspaper columns and magazine articles on the out-of-doors for the past 20 years. The award-winning author of 18 books, Phillips has made his living learning the secrets of how expert hunters take white-tailed deer.

For many hundreds of years Kazakh nomads have been grazing their livestock near the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia. The Altai Kazakhs are unique in their tradition of using golden eagles to hunt on horseback. The lifestyle of these hunters, known in Kazakh as burtkitshis, is changing rapidly, and over the last few years the award-winning photographer Palani Mohan has spent time with these men and their families, documenting a culture under threat. The special bond between a hunter and his eagle begins when the hunter takes an eagle pup from a nest high on the rock face. The pups are usually about four years old (a golden eagle can live to 30 years of age). It's important that the pup has learned to hunt and is not still dependent on her mother; but neither can she be too old nor experienced, or she will not learn to live with humans. The hunters take only female pups from the nest, as females are larger and more powerful and aggressive than the males. Adult female golden eagles can have a wingspan of up to 9 feet, and weigh over 15 pounds. The eagle pup gradually learns to accept food from the hunter, and once trust has been established, the hunter begins to train the bird. The hunters describe the eagle as part of their family. The eagle takes pride of place in the home most of the time except during the day in the summer months or the warmest part of the day in the winter months. While all the men in the family handle the eagle, only the man who took her from the nest hunts with her. Hunting takes place in winter, when temperatures can plummet to minus 40 degrees Farenheit. The birds are carried in swaddling, which the hunters claim keeps them both warm and calm. The strong bond between hunter and eagle is strengthened by the amount of time they spend together. Hunting trips can last many days, as the hunter and eagle trek up to a mountain ridge to obtain a good view across the landscape. Once the prey - usually a fox - is spotted, the hunter charges towards it to flush it into the open, then releases the eagle to make the kill. Hunters traditionally wear fur coats made from the skins of the prey their eagle has caught. The relationship between hunter and eagle typically lasts six to eight years, then the eagle is released back into the wild to breed. One hunter tells Mohan: 'You love them as your own, even when you set them free at the end.' In his book, which comprises an introductory essay and 90 dramatic duotone images, Mohan explains how the burkitshis are slowing dying out. Rather than endure the brutal winters, their children choose to move to the capital, Ulan Bator, for a better way of life. There are also fewer golden eagles in the Altai Mountains. Although the 'Golden Eagle Festival' takes place every October to showcase the ancient art of hunting with eagles, attracting tourists from across the world, there are only between 50 and 60 'true' hunters left. This book is therefore a timely, important record of these proud men and their magnificent eagles in a remote, unforgiving part of the planet.

Lord Purdey was shaking with anger. 'Bring back the lynx? Over my dead body!' The environmental protestors murmured, and Rory stepped forward. 'Your hunting has destroyed our hills and left them treeless wastes, devoid of wildlife. It's time that changed.' 'Listen, you lentil-eating cat lover,' Purdey barked through the megaphone, 'men like me own Scotland. If we want to kill anything that moves and turn the whole damn place into a theme park, we'll do it.' Someone from the group of protestors hurled a turnip. It struck Purdey and he crumpled to the ground. Just as the archaic class system he represents must eventually fall, Angus thought with a grin. In his first two bestselling books, The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, John D. Burns invited readers to join him in the hills and wild places of Scotland. In Sky Dance, he returns to that world to ask fundamental questions about how we relate to this northern landscape - while raising a laugh or two along the way. Anyone who has gazed at the majesty of the Scottish mountains will know this place and want to return to it. Now, as wild land is threatened like never before, it's time we asked ourselves what kind of future we want for the Highlands.

Bobwhites in the Texas panhandle, prairie grouse in the Flint Hills of Kansas, Gambel's quail in New Mexico's arroyos, blue quail on the staked plains, and doves and Mearn's quail in Arizona. In these lyrical essays, Henry Chappell examines the bonds that exist between hunter, hunting dog, land, and prey. At Home on the Range with a Texas Hunter evokes a powerful sense of history and place and never shies from the responsibilities and ethical struggles every hunter faces.

Gathered here are many of the finest contemporary sporting writers: George Bird Evans, Charles Waterman, Gene Hill, Michael Mcintosh, Jim Fergus, and many others. Each offers a story of his singular relationship with the dog (or dogs) that shaped his life.

This title details Raif Mair's experiences with fly fishing.

Few people hunting today are really aware of the history of their sport. This concise book shows how this much misunderstood sport has survived and flourished through the centuries of change, to the benefit of the fox and its environment.

The most exciting time of year for any waterfowler is when summer begins to wane and autumn slowly edges in. The anticipation for the upcoming season is almost too much to bear. Big December Canvasbacks is a celebration of waterfowl and the scenic places they inhabit. It is also a candid look into what motivates the waterfowler to pursue these beautiful animals. With illustrations by noted sporting artist Dave Hagerbaumer, Big December Canvasbacks should be required reading for any waterfowler.

Safari 101 is written for the hunter that has always considered Africa out of reach, someone who has a spark of desire just waiting to be fanned into a flame. The myths of being "too expensive" and "too difficult" are firmly entrenched in many hunters' minds. Safari 101 has forty-six hints dispersed throughout 11 chapters and proves these myths false. Personal stories are used to illustrate the value of each hint and to make each one easy to remember. When Brown took his first Safari, he was forced to rely on word of mouth for information, as all of the books he found were for photo Safaris. This book takes Brown's experiences, and what he learned from professional hunters and outfitters, and puts the information in a logical progression that is entertaining as well as informative. The book will help fan the spark into a flame.

"This is a simple, plain-talking, commonsense, and no-nonsense book on hunting the Whitetail," begins How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life. It's the legendary classic that started instructional hunting literature as we know it, and it's in print again. Larry Benoit had spent decades tracking and taking deer in the mountains of northern Vermont before he set down the first word about hunting, and the result was an instant classic. He was a tracker in the old sense of the word, a smart hunter who worked hard for his trophies. He didn't sit on stumps, waiting for a deer to wander by, and he didn't cruise back roads in a car: He hunted. In How to Bag the Biggest Buck of Your Life, he shows how. Chapters include getting fit for the chase, learning to read tracks, advice on clothing and equipment, how to handle a rifle, and how to field dress and butcher your buck. Interspersed are anecdotes from his long career, including the saga of a 13-day pursuit of a savvy, 230-pound buck with 25-inch antlers. It's a book for the hunter just learning to love the woods, and it's a book for the old hand who wants to spend some time with one of the most experienced hunters ever to walk the northern forests. It's one of the gems of hunting literature.

Originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1930, The Wilderness of Denali is a memoir of three years of hunting the area of Alaska surrounding Mt. McKinley. It is a classic of American adventure a book written by a man who was willing to risk his life in pursuit of grizzly bears and the elusive mountain sheep. The account was written each night by campfire as Sheldon discovered what is still regarded as the most scenic wilderness in America.

All the Powerful Invisible Things is an eloquent memoir of self-discovery and a chronicle of outdoor life. Refusing "impoverished ideas of passion," Gretchen Legler writes about the complexities of being a woman who fishes and hunts, as well as about the more intimate terrain of family and sexuality. The result is a unique literary confluence filled with the ineffable graces of the natural world. She writes: "I used to hate being a woman. When I was young, I believed I was a boy. Throughout college I never knew what it was like to touch a woman, to kiss a woman, to have a woman as a friend. All of my friends were men. I am thirty years old now, and I feel alone. I am not a man. Knowing this is like an earthquake. Just now all the lies are starting to unfold. I don't blend in as well or as easily as I used to. I refuse to stay on either side of the line." Like many women, Legler finds that her presence identifies the unmarked boundaries of where she is and is not welcome, learning when it is advantageous to pass as male and when it is better to disappear into the woods and trees around her. This contrasts sharply with her experience of nature as a source of spiritual sustenance, a space of unparalleled freedom where she can lose herself in something larger. Twenty-five years after it was first published, All the Powerful Invisible Things remains a highwater mark for women writing about the outdoors and is one of the few works to tackle the intricacies of gender identity and sexuality with transcendental aplomb.

• Offers expert instruction and in-the-field advice for the novice and experienced tracker

Tracking wildlife successfully requires more than just looking for trails and scat. It requires an awareness of how an animal behaves in its environment--how it finds food, travels, and rests. A tracker must know how to find and interpret behavioral clues animals leave behind. This how-to book teaches the basics of being a successful tracker--explaining what to look for to find or identify an animal and how to develop an essential environmental awareness. Also describes aging tracks and sign, understanding ecology and mapping, keeping field notes, using track tools, and making casts.

Pointing Dogs departs from traditional training guides by treating dogs as individuals with different temperaments who need to be trained according to the individual needs of their owners. This book covers not only field-training fundamentals, but the ten lessons our dogs try to teach us: how to personalize the training to fit the needs of both hunter and dog; how bloodlines, training, and experience combine to form the complete bird dog; insights into a dog's scenting abilities; proper care of a bird dog; and how to live with your dog the other ten months of the year.

The classic grouse hunting book of all time, this masterpiece created more interest in the sport than all of the other books on grouse combined. A noted authority on game birds of all kinds, Spiller delivers practical, hands-on advice on hunting grouse, the choice of bird dogs, favorite hunting locales throughout the New England states and much more. The book includes nine handsome illustrations by noted wildlife artist Lynn Bogue Hunt, author of Derrydale's An Artist's Game Bag .